The Lok Sabha Speaker, Sumitra Mahajan, has constituted the top three finance panels of Parliament—the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the Estimates Committee and the Committee on Public Undertakings (CoPU).
While former Food Minister and Congress MP KV Thomas will head the PAC, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Murli Manohar Joshi will head the Estimates Committee. Former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister V Shanta Kumar will head the CoPU. Veteran BJP leader LK Advani is a member of the CoPU.
The BJP has sound majority in all the three panels. This is likely to help the Government to get Parliamentary approvals for its programmes and schemes. During the UPA regime, the PAC, the headed by Joshi, has been critical of the government expenditures.
The Committee on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes will be headed by BJP MP Faggan Singh Kulaste. The Committee on Welfare of Other Backward Classes will be headed by BJP leader Bandaru Dattatreya.
The names of the members and chairpersons of departments related standing committees and other panels are likely to be announced on Tuesday. The Government had several rounds of discussions with political parties to reach a consensus on the membership in the committees. The Government successfully avoided elections to all the top finance panels.
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